Six

Lucifer, stands up from his chair so harshly that the chair falls to the floor with a loud thud. The action startles the girl sitting in the guest of honor, the chair fell with so much noise that her heart starts to speed up. When she looks up at him, she only feels fear for him. His eyes have turned to pitch black and looks as if he has no eyes in his sockets. His sinister grin that he gives sends her shivers down her spine, from fear and she hasn't felt this great fear in her entire life, she actually fears what he might do to her.

The flames of the lit candles in the room have gotten bigger and gives off more light in the room then before. He stalks towards his brother. Poseidon, on the other hand doesn't show any slightest sign that he's afraid of his brother, unlike Athena who's now shaking with fear. She feels as if she's going to faint from fear alone.

"Brother, you're scaring the Lady" He tells him, after noticing how Athena is petrified with fear.

As much as he wants to help her, he fears that he might make it worse for her. Lucifer doesn't listen to his brother. Kicking the chair out, he takes his brother by the collar and lifts him off the ground, as if he were a mere feather.

"She belongs to me and only me!" He says, and then throws his brother into the wall behind them.

The amount of force that he used sends him crashing into the wall and nearly breaking it. Athena lets out a scream of pure terror, but remains in her seat. Afraid that she could be next if she moves. She holds her breath, scared that even if she breathes, she might get hurt by him.

"Lucifer, stop this madness. Look at her!" Poseidon tells his brother, referring to the frightened girl in the seat on honor.

He doesn't look at her and stalk towards his brother that still lies on the floor. He doesn't feel pain, but he doesn't really like being thrown into the wall. If people were to learn that he can easily been taken over, he would be overthrown by his own people. And, he is the rightful King by birth and nature, he belongs on the throne and though he hasn't found his Queen yet, they can't hold that against him.

Lucifer's beast has taken over him and when that happens, there's no stopping him. People say, there're two sides of us. One who we show everyone, the other is the dark side that most have in their heads, though, not many listen to it. The King of the Underworld's dark side is a beast. A beast that's locked inside him, that way that he can control it. But, when it comes to Athena, the girl that he has been waiting for, for years, the beast becomes nearly unstoppable. And, he will kill every living thing to make sure that she's his and his alone, and she's safe and away from harm.

Little does he know that she's far from safe. Athena is more frightened of him than anything else in her life. Silent tears run down her cheeks and her heart is racing in her chest. Her breathing is uneven, not able to keep it under control. She's shaking in the chair and she fears she's going to throw up soon. The fear that's in her body is taking over her, and the source of the fear is the man that she's meant to spend the rest of her life with.

As he was about to pick his brother up again, his gaze lands on the girl he loves and suddenly reality sets in. He sees the state of her and instantly stops. His eyes switch back to the normal glowing red color that is his normal eye color. His heart nearly breaks

when he sees her tears and wants to do everything he can to make sure that a smile comes to her face and no tears haunt her face. He takes one step closer to her, but she back away in her seat. In order to get away from him.

He instantly backs and with a sad face leaves the room, not wanting to cause his love more pain than he has already caused. He doesn't want her to be afraid of him, he needs to earn her love and he can't lose it like he did now, but then again, his love for her is far too strong. All he wants to do is lock her away from the world. Make sure that no one touches her, they don't deserve her. Only he does and wants to keep her all to himself, where she truly belongs. In his arms.

As soon as the doors close, Poseidon is quick to get on his feet and he goes to the frightened girl and hugs her. She relaxes a bit in his arms, though it could be because his brother left the room. He allows her to hug him and cry into his shoulder. He knows first hand how his brother can be and how his beast is, but the girl in his arms doesn't.

"He isn't always like this, you know" He tells her after she's calmed

down. The tears have stopped and she's fine, physically. Mentally, she's still in shock.

"He would never harm you in any way, he's just a bit... possessive. It really isn't his fault. But, I swear on the all the fish in the ocean that he will never raise a hand to you. Do you hear me? He will never hurt you, if he does, I will take you away from here. Far away from him, to a place where he will never be able to find you" He tells her.

It's been few minutes since he met her, and he already feels protective over her. In a brotherly way. She nods her head, agreeing with him, though there's this hesitation in her. She doesn't understand it, she wants nothing more than to get away from this place and from him. Yet, something inside her is telling her that this is where she belongs, with him. She just hugs him as though her life depends on it, and if you look at it that way, it does. At this moment, she wants comfort and someone to hold her, yet this is the wrong person. Something in her craves to be with the one who frightened her.

Those thoughts are being ignored by her, as she tries to calm down and breathe better. For a moment, it felt as if the time had stopped, nothing moved. It was just the two of them joined in a hug. It's clear as day that neither have romantic feelings, it's more friendly and family hug rather than anything else. Until Poseidon decides to speak again.

"Are you still hungry?" He asks her, his voice is soft and just above a whisper, breaking the comfortable silence that had taken over the room before.

All thoughts of food had vanished from her mind the moment that everything went the wrong way. Athena lightly shakes her head. She had managed to eat something, and after everything that had taken place here, hunger is the least of her mind. Her body is more exhausted and tired rather than hungry. She hadn't slept for some time and the adrenaline that was in her body before seems to be wearing off and is now taking a toll on her. Without being able to stop it, a rouge yawn escapes her lips. Poseidon notices how tired the girl in his arms is and scoops her into a bridal style position.

She's taken aback by that action and her eyes widen it is at that moment that she realizes that she's more tired than she had first thought and she struggles to keep their eyes open, even for a few seconds. Athena finds herself slowly closing her eyes in the arms of the brother of the man that has kidnapped her and brought her to an unknown place, but she tries to fight the exhaustion, only continue losing to it. He chuckles and smirks at the young girl in his arms. Her innocence doesn't belong in a place like this, yet it's the safest place she can be.

"It's alright, sleep. I will make sure nothing happens to you" He whispers in her ear.

She's quick to shut her eyes and it doesn't take long before her breaths become even and she has fallen into a deep slumber. Her human body far too tired to keep her awake. Poseidon carries the girl out of the room and into the throne room, figuring that his brother would want to have her, and seeing her in his arms would be bad. However, his beast will do everything in its power to protect her and keep her safe and when it sees that she's safe, it will spare him.

Hopefully.

********

The King of the Underworld sits on his high

throne with grace. His red glowing eyes see the girl in his brothers arms.

"You're either idiotic or brave to come in here with my future bride in your arms when it should be me" He says, his voice filled with power.

"You know me, I love the adventure. But, as the kind brother that I am, I give her to you, but be careful brother, the journey to love is long and difficult. I'd like to watch as a woman controls the beast" He says with a smirk and the words just roll off his tongue, still teasing his brother.

Lucifer stands up and walks down the stairs and before anyone knows it, the girl is in his arms. Her sleeping soundly in the arms of the King, makes all the anger vanish from him, his beast has calmed. Poseidon takes this as a cue to leave and walks out of there silently, so his brother doesn't notice him. Not that he would notice him anyway, his focus is on the fragile girl he has in his strong big arms. With a smile on his face, he leaves the Underworld, happy that his plan succeeded.

Athena's soft and adorable small snores make Lucifer smile even wider. He just stands there in the throne room for a long time with his sleeping love in his arms. She looks so peaceful and it reminds him of when he brought her down there, which only happened few hours ago, yet felt like a lifetime since he held her. He only wished that she were awake and looking at him with love in her fire eyes, like he looks at her with his red glowing ones.

He walks up to their bedroom and gently sets her on the bed, he doesn't even look where he goes. His eyes are only on her, and he makes sure that's she's breathing. He doesn't want anything to happen to her on his watch, she's so fragile. He believes that if he holds her too tight, she might break. When he sets her down on the bed, he feels this longing to have her in his arms once more, to touch her smooth skin, to feel her touching him.

Lucifer doesn't want to change her clothing, for one she wants to have her privacy. He could demand one of the slaves to do it, like the one he assigned to her, but she wouldn't feel comfortable that someone else changed her. He takes the braid out of her hair and allowing her hair to be the way that he wants

it to be. It's smooth and silk like, he loves brushing his hands through it. Taking the necklace off her neck and setting it down on the pillar that it's supposed to be on, he notices that she did pick a fine piece of jewelry, yet could have picked more than a simple necklace.

A small smile creeps up his lips when he sees that she isn't wearing any shoes. While he watched her life, he saw how much she did not enjoy them. He saw her kick her shoes off when no one was looking. She might not have noticed how uncomfortable they are, and how she automatically takes them off without even knowing it herself, but he sees. He has watched her, her whole life. Pulling the covers over her, he can't take his eyes off her. Ever since she came to the Underworld, he feels like he's in a dream.

One that he's going to wake up soon from and she will be gone. Never have been here in the first place. Yet, he knows he's wide awake. He just doesn't want to lose her, she's everything to him. And, now that she's safe from any harm and with him at last, he will continue to protect her for all eternity Unfortunately the King needs to break his eyes from the girl, as much as he doesn't want to, he has a job to do.

It isn't easy running Hell.

Kissing her forehead, and giving her one last look, he exits the bedroom and goes into the hallway. The castle is dark and scary, but on each wall there lights up a small flame in thin air, lighting up more than it should be able to compared to the size of it. His magic controls this castle, and only he can control it. The castle is alive, it may not seem like it, but it does breathe and it does have a beating heart. And, he controls it with his powers and no one can take that away.

*******

The King of Hell doesn't go to the throne room, he goes deeper into the castle instead. To the dungeons. Every castle has a dungeon and this castle has the dungeon that can make any other dungeon be the Easter island. With a smirk on his face, he smells the blood scent that welcomes him when he steps down the stairs and past the heavy metal gate. Moan and groans in pain comes to his ears and as he sees his captured enemies in cages, it makes him feel powerful and strong. Walking past

all of them, smirking at them and enjoying seeing them in pain he makes his way to the furthest cell.

He walks over there and looks into the cell. It's smaller than all the other ones and the metal bars are thicker and closer together and much stronger. The inside of the cell are stones, cold and gray. No window is inside it and nearly no light makes it's way inside. A movement in the right corner makes him snap his head that way. A person is in there and from the looks of the cell, has been for a long time. Vomit and blood covers the floor. If it weren't for the rocks that are at the bottom of the metal bars, shielding the floor from the outside and the inside, there would be vomit and blood where he stands.

The person inside moves slow to the metal bars, crawling on the floor. From weakness and lack of strength, also to show the King who's in control. He only smirks at the person inside, loving the power he has over it. Soon he starts to see the person. A young girl, looks to be about sixteen years old covered in her own filth comes into view. She's dressed in a white wedding dress that doesn't seem to have a spot of white anymore instead covered dirt and filth. Her long black messy hair covering her face.

Ocean blue eyes watch his every movement, showing only fear and respect in them. Her pale thin skin shows how long she's been in here. Her body starved and covered in dirt. Light shade of pink lips messed up from being dry and not hydrated as does her body. She's covered in her own blood, from being tortured for days. He looks down at her in disgust and his look shows pure hatred.

It's clear that they know each other, from the looks on both their faces, they have a past together and know each other fairly well. And for a small moment, they just stay like that. Staring into each other eyes. Blue to glowing red. Each remembering the times things weren't like that, she not in a cell in the dungeon and him not looking at her like if she were nothing but the common rat on the streets. Reality then kicks him and he severs the eye contact with her and he remembers why she's down there in the first place and she brought this fate upon herself and shall stay down there for all eternity.

A guard comes to him, and whispers something to him. The girl doesn't hear what he said to the man she once knew, but she knows it's nothing good. She has accepted her fate, but he doesn't plan on killing her, he plans to keep her there for all eternity. Until she can no longer have the strength to keep going and her body turns to dust before her eyes. First her legs, then her arms, and her stomach. Until it's only her head left, and it too turns to dust and she will become no more.

She watches him turn angry and then his eyes meet hers, this time with so much anger. His eyes have changed to the pitch black that happens when he's angry and only one can calm him down at this stage. But the girl in the cell doesn't know that and now she truly believes that he will kill her. She's seen what his beast can do and still it can do more than she has seen. It's unpredictable, and that frightens her.

The look he gives her is one that might send someone to their graves. Lucifer watches her be afraid of him, and cower in fear, something that he enjoys from people. All but one. He smirks when he sees the sight of the girl in the cell. Looking down at her with so much anger that needs to be released, the cell door opens by his command. It makes a noise, but neither look away from each other. She is far too afraid to look away from him.

Walking inside, he stands right next to her and looks down at her.

"Now let's play... wife"